How to generate leads for your accounting practice?

All types of businesses require accounting professionals to manage their accounts and assist them in filing taxes. There is practically unlimited demand for Accountants.
Due to the thousands of available accountants in the market, it becomes challenging to generate leads offline and online for any practice. Every accountant or accountancy firm wishes to grow and expand.

This piece covers:

Ways to generate leads for your practice

Pro tips to generate leads faster

There are several ways to generate leads for your accountancy practice:

Content Marketing :

Content writing does work but it takes a lot of effort and time. First, you put all your energy into writing the article and after that, it takes time for the content to gain traction online. Surely the fact that “Content is King” does actually work but for a long term strategy.

Content Marketing involves sharing of information on Industry and companies’ services such as publishing articles on tax education, tax saving on the companies blog. It is crucial to produce original content on a regular basis. You can also create explainer videos on how to handle an audit, file taxes, etc. You can post case studies to demonstrate how you assisted clients to file taxes efficiently and improve productivity. Use infographics on topics on how to avoid mistakes when filing tax, share information using infographics. You can publish guides, checklists on topics as easy as creating an invoice to filing a tax return.

Quality content will help generate leads.

Referrals:

Clients are willing to refer your business to others if you offer good services. You can also seek referrals from known lawyers, banks, real estate agents, insurance agents and others (their clients typically need new accounting work). Give your clients extra business cards so that they can pass it to their friends, relatives co-owners, etc.

SEO:

Search Engine Optimization is the single most effective tool to generate leads online. SEO consists of targeted keywords to communicate your content online and gain traction. It also consists of using outside engagements and articles to obtain relevant links to your website. In simpler words, you need to rank your website on google page 1 when someone searches for a keyword like ‘best accountant near me’.

PPC campaigns/Google ads:

Pay per click campaign implemented through Google Adwords is a targeted form to generate leads. The advertiser will pay to the search engine for every ad clicked. The campaign focuses on relevant keywords and generates quality leads. The ad can show up on google search results, accounting-related youtube videos.

Social Media Marketing:

Social Media Marketing is a powerful tool to generate leads. Communicate and share relevant information on social media. You can make use of Facebook ads with landing pages or websites to optimize for lead generation. Also Linkedin sponsored content is a quick method to increase the lead volume.

Targeted Mailing List:

Create a mailing list by collecting emails on your website in exchange for whitepapers, ebooks on accounting. Make sure your content should be well-researched, up to date for the readers to read. With a targeted email list, you can send newsletters, share relevant news, offers, use social sharing buttons and create leads.

Community outreach:

Participation in local seminars, events, lectures on accounting set doors open for highly qualified leads. Network with people in the same profession. Look for businesses, professionals who offer complementary services to your accounting firm. Community outreach generates leads to a high rate of conversion. Get active on AccountingWeb!

Make use of Quora or Reddit:

Quora and Reddit are questions and answers platforms and a great way to generate leads. Be active on these platforms and answer as many questions as you can relate to your field. Write answers precisely and accurately to get upvotes on your answers. This also gives the impression of an expert in accounting. Provide links on your answers and direct them to your website or landing page for qualified leads.

Testimonials:

Creating great content isn’t enough for many of the prospects. People want to hear from clients about their experience with a particular practice. A happy client can provide a testimonial for you to display on your website to boost about how well you are to work with. Ask your clients to share their experiences. This will build trust among your potential clients.

Pro tip:

During tax season, everyone in the practice is super busy. This is the time when you receive a lot of referrals and potential distressed customers. Hire an accountant or virtual accountant to answer calls and get the work done specifically during that span so that you don’t miss on potential leads.

If you can handle a lot (Are you scalable?) or you are in a hurry to get leads for your practice, consider the following Pro tips to generate leads for your accounting practice:

A funnel is a process your prospects go through to become a lead or a client. So, to generate leads you need to create a funnel first. A funnel may consist of the following:

Picking a niche allows you to connect deeper with your prospects. So, once you know your niche market, start marketing your services and figure out their pain points.

Now that you know your niche and their pain points, it’s time to advertise to them. You can choose to advertise using PPC, social media, email newsletter or target audience industry-wise.

Capture the contact information to turn lead into a client. Send your prospect to a landing page (contact information) instead of the website. Landing pages are designed to convert the right people. You can create content on guides, checklist, case studies, webinars and direct the link to the landing page. This way you will have the right people’s contact information.

Start giving calls to these leads and explain how you can help them save taxes or increase profitability.

Is marketing working well for you? Unable to handle the workload?
We at Outbooks offer Accounting and Bookkeeping Outsourcing Services for Accountants.
Would you like to learn more about us and how we can help you scale your practice, get in touch?